Apocalypse ✦ Nomin

12

⊱ ───── { Jeno } ───── ⊰

"You've been oddly quiet," Jisung points out.

Jeno lets out a quiet, low growl at this observation from Jisung. He was correct, but he didn't want to explain how he was feeling internally after being confronted by Jaemin's mother that he was her son's soulmate. He was thankful she didn't dig deeper into their relationship, but it didn't stop his mind from running over the scenario a million times over.

"I'm not in the mood to talk," Jeno grumbles irritably.

"If we're both honest, here, I think it's because the bird led us to Jaemin's parents, and the whole situation caused you more grief than you were prepared to handle," Jisung retorts as he jumps in Jeno's way, forcing him to come to a halt.

"Fuck off," he hisses.

"Pushing aside your feelings and refusing to deal with them is going to complicate things. You're sabotaging yourself, Jeno," Jisung attempts to speak on a peer-level, but this only infuriates Jeno further.

"Did I say you could speak to me that way?" he snaps, "I know what I'm doing, and if you doubt me, then run back to your filthy little angel and never come back!"

"You want to know why I didn't leave you to join him?" Jisung yells back, "Because I knew you needed me! You were my best friend, and I wasn't going to let you go through this alone!"

"Maybe you should have!" Jeno bellows as his eyes glow red.

Jisung glares at him briefly before letting out a dry laugh.

"You're trying so hard to be just like your father," he mutters, "I hate to break this to you, but getting daddy's approval will never be worth the cost of pushing away the people you care about and pretending to hate the man you love."

"I don't love him anymore."

"Keep telling yourself that, maybe one day you'll believe it," Jisung effectively silences him, "You wallow in self-pity and blame your problems on everyone else, but the truth is that you've done this to yourself. Jaemin came to you, begging you leave with him, but instead you tell him you're going to wage war against him and that you don't care if he dies."

Jisung takes a step closer to him and presses his index finger harshly into Jeno's chest.

"If you want to point fingers and be angry with anyone, you better take a long, hard look in the mirror and recognize that you're as much to blame as Jaemin. Or anyone else, for that matter," Jisung grimaces as he lowers his hand, "Now...let's hurry the fuck up and find this fucking sword."

Resuming their silence, Jisung turns around and storms off in the direction of a nearby mountainside which the crow is gliding directly towards.

****

Jeno watches the crow suddenly make a sharp right past an opening to an odd formation of small mountains. Jeno runs at full speed after the bird, and once he reaches the opening, he realizes that they had formed a sort of circular barrier around what appeared to be a very large rock. The rock is stationed in the centre, and as Jeno nears it, he spots something shiny coming from it. He draws closer and closer, soon realizing the hilt of a silver sword was sticking out. The sword appears fairly plain aside from a few rubies glimmering from the very bottom of the hilt.

"I assume the person that stuck this here intended for it to look like that one fairytale," Jeno mumbles to himself as opposed to Jisung, as he chose to stay at the opening of the circle, "Let's see if I'm worthy."

Jeno steps up onto the large rock and squats down as he grabs ahold of the hilt. He yanks it upward, surprisingly sliding the sword out with ease. He holds it, pointing it upward for a moment as he revels in the glory of having removed the sword from the stone before lowering it and hopping down from the rock. He briefly examines the sword, taking immediate note of the fact that the blade is glowing an enchanting shade of blue. Something about it makes it incredibly difficult for Jeno not to use the sword on the closest thing around him to see how well it works and test just how powerful it truly is. Unfortunately, Jisung is the only one around, and although Jeno was eager to fight Jisung, he did not want to use such a weapon on him. No matter how angry he made him.

Jeno strides up to Jisung with the blade pointing downward. He nods to him and extends his hand toward the tall man. Jisung takes it without comment, nor any clear aggression. Jeno utters a few words under his breath, and the two are surrounded by smoke, just seconds away from returning to Jeno's study.